PrintMay 8, 2009
Suckers United for Change
Now that we're more than 100 days into the Obama presidency, the handwriting is on the wall regarding our new leader's game plan for America. Spend other people's money like a Madoff on steroids. Let every enemy on the planet know there's a wimp in the White House. Let every ally know the wimp in the White House will do nothing to help them when push comes to shove. Let the 50 states know there's a power coup in play that strips them of constitutionally guaranteed liberties. Let every company know that neither they nor their non-union employees are safe from Chicago-Way thugs and their mouthpieces in the media. Let the 300 million American citizens know that the rule of law, applied equally to all, is about to be replaced by special favoritism in the form of "empathy."
All in all, one would need to be a numbskull not to see banana republic written all over the current administration and its intent.
If asked for a word to describe an Obama voter, there is only one that any sentient person could offer: SUCKER.
These are folks who buy a used car from a slick-suited, smooth-talking, salesman of the decade who laughs every step of the way to the bank. These are folks who agree to 25 medical tests to find out they have a planter's wart. These are folks who call immediately to buy the $19.95 super deal on an under-bed storage box they could buy any old day at Wal-Mart for a buck. These are the folks who think day old bread will make you sick.
They're the kind of voters that every crooked politician has drooling dreams about every night of the year.
So, the next time that college kid or one of his professors beams that we- were-united-for-change malarkey at you, laugh in his face. The next time that brilliant-beyond-brilliant Gen X or Y business executive gloats on his liberal-white-guilt vote, just shake your head and send him a sympathy card. The next time that giddy woman with an Obama crush fawns over The One, roll your eyes and stay clear; she has a defect you don't want in a future mate.
Has ever a bigger lot of fools been assembled on planet earth?
Could any of these folks work his way out of a wet paper bag?
Now, the silly thing in all this is that anyone with a single grain of common sense saw right through the man with the postage-stamp sized resume the first day he announced his bid for the presidency. And as exit polling demonstrated beyond any doubt, Obama voters were so swept-off-their-feet they didn't even know the basic facts about the candidates last year. They voted with their feelings, their fancies, and their fools' gold blinders.
Were they just old fashioned ninnies? Or were they actually brainwashed? Now, this is a very good question.
Brainwashing and the Obama Cult
Brainwashing has a pretty sordid history and has been a stock in trade of totalitarian regimes for a century. Here is a good description from How Stuff Works:
In psychology, the study of brainwashing, often referred to as thought reform, falls into the sphere of "social influence." (snip) For instance, the compliance method aims to produce a change in a person's behavior and is not concerned with his attitudes or beliefs. It's the "Just do it" approach.Persuasion, on the other hand, aims for a change in attitude, or "Do it because it'll make you feel good/happy/healthy/successful." The education method (which is called the "propaganda method" when you don't believe in what's being taught) goes for the social-influence gold, trying to affect a change in the person's beliefs, along the lines of "Do it because you know it's the right thing to do." Brainwashing is a severe form of social influence that combines all of these approaches to cause changes in someone's way of thinking without that person's consent and often against his will.
We tend to think, as Americans, that any form of brainwashing among a free people, not under the threat of physical harm, would be impossible to employ with success.
However, during this election season, we saw a generalized favoritism for the Obama campaign among influential media people, on university campuses and even in K-12 education. We saw a prolific hagiography campaign that plastered billboards and sides of buildings in major cities. We saw manufactured "news" that ogled over crowds for Obama, but failed to mention the free rock concerts that immediately preceded Obama's best-attended speeches. We saw Hollywood celebrities in full-thrall mode for The One. We saw religious imagery hijacked for ephemeral "change," which was never defined, yet had mesmerizing effects.
This was a classic case of the brainwashing techniques of persuasion and education models, as described above.
So, who were indeed the biggest suckers for Obama's ubiquitous kumbayah rhetoric? Hands-down the sucker prize goes to those most prone to groupthink brainwashing techniques of persuasion: the young. Barack Obama carried the 18-29 year olds by a whopping 66% majority. According to Pew's analysis, this vote chunk was perhaps the biggest deciding factor in 2008. Obama also garnered 52% of the 30-44 age group. These were the only age groups that voted in majorities for Barack Obama.
This makes perfect sense, when one acknowledges that universities and public education institutions have been leftist indoctrination centers for the past 30 years. The vast majority of American Universities subject entering freshmen to Sensitivity Training seminars as part of orientation.
In 2000, Reason published an in-depth article on university brainwashing seminars, euphemistically called "sensitivity training." The author, Alan Charles Kors, provides an in-depth look into the Orwellian programs offered at nearly every American university. It is a frightening overview, entitled "Thought Reform 101," which notes:
Tony Tillman, in charge of a mandatory "Social Issues" orientation at Dartmouth, explained in the Journal that students needed to address "the various forms of `isms': sexism, racism, classism," all of which were interrelated. Oberlin "educated" its freshmen about "differences in race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and culture," with separate orientations for blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, and Americans of Asian descent. Columbia University sought to give its incoming students the chance "to reevaluate [and] learn things," so that they could rid themselves of "their own social and personal beliefs that foster inequality." Katherine Balmer, assistant dean for freshmen at Columbia, explained to the Times that "you can't bring all these people together...without some sort of training."
American universities are unashamedly using brainwashing techniques, and have finally produced a generation willing to vote for an "acceptable" cult leader for president.
If the words, "I've been had," are not at this juncture forming in the mind of nearly every Obama voter, I would give terrific odds that he has been brainwashed and needs to reclaim his common sense before the clock strikes 12 on the United States of America.
We live in a dangerous world, where no quarter will be given those whose brains have been turned to mush. If you were an Obama Cult follower, the time to wake up and smell the coffee is right this very minute.
**Inspiration for this column from reader, Lee Hazel. My sincere thanks to him.**
Kyle-Anne Shiver is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. She welcomes your comments at commonsenseregained.com.
